2007-02-02 10:28:00 PST MIAMI -- In a piece of bad news for the 49ers, albeit news they might have known was coming, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said today that the league's stadium-building subsidy program has run out of money.

Speaking Friday in Miami, where the Super Bowl will be held on Sunday, Goodell delivered a "state of the league" address. Afterward, he was asked if it were true that the "G3" funding had run dry. He said it had, and that the league would have to find a new way to help teams and cities build or refurbish stadiums. A new stadium can cost a billion dollars.

The 49ers are trying to plan a new stadium. The team has said that trying to build it in Santa Clara is its first plan of action, but there continue to be talks between San Francisco officials and the 49ers about the team continuing to play somewhere near its current home on Candlestick Point.

Goodell said he is, naturally, concerned about the stadium situation on the West Bay (he didn't mention any concerns about the Raiders' under-attended stadium in the East Bay), and he has kept abreast of the situation. But, he said the league needs to address a lot of problems, and he didn't indicate many solutions -- and this stadium-funding problem clearly is one for which he doesn't have a solution right now. In fact, Goodell said it wouldn't be back on the table until the intra-ownership fight over revenue sharing and the ongoing/eternal labor situation are resolved, which is code for "You fellas are on your own."

The NFL's G3 program has subsidized stadium construction or renovation, and the loans are repaid with the visiting teams' share of club-seat revenue once the project is finished.

League observers knew that the program was about out of money. In December, NFL owners approved a $300 million loan from their G3 stadium fund to help pay for the construction of a new, joint stadium for the New York Giants and New York Jets.

The stadium is expected to cost between $1.1 billion to $1.2 billion and will be located at the Meadowlands, the site of the current stadium. Previously, G3 loans were limited to $150 million per club, but the Giants and Jets received a 50 percent funding match because they are in a top-five television market.

Owners also approved a $42.5 million grant from the G3 program to help renovate Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City.

The combined $342.5 million in grant approvals essentially drained the G3 fund.

That means the 49ers, the Cowboys and the Vikings, three teams in the process of planning stadium proposals, might have their projects delayed until a new funding program is in place, unless they find another way to come up with a billion dollars.